Since Election Day, unions have lived on borrowed time. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which has exclusive authority over many key questions of labor law, is still controlled by Democrats — thus shielding workers and their unions from attacks that became far likelier the moment Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2016 election.

But this period of interregnum is about to end. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) began the process of confirming the first of Trump’s two nominees to the NLRB on Monday. When both nominees sit on the Board, a swift rollback of union rights is likely.

As soon as this week, the Senate is likely to vote on Marvin Kaplan, the first of these two nominees. A former GOP Hill staffer, Kaplan drafted legislation—strongly supported by business lobby groups—which would have made it easier for employers to fight unionization campaigns.

Trump’s other nominee, William Emanuel, is a veteran management-side lawyer who touts his “particular expertise with laws concerning union access to the private property of employers.” He’s also filed briefs in three cases claiming that employers can force workers to waive their right to bring class actions and similar lawsuits.

[snip][end]

Workers of the world ... stop being conned by this conman.

_________________-- Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.Malaclypse the Younger

The NLRB is where the work is done for or against labor that no one sees. When we have a Republican administration, they always put nasty anti-union folks in that try to obliterate workers. We had eight years with Bush. It was very tough.

But here's the thing - when we have a Democratic administration, we don't get the opposite, where they open the candy store. The people they put in don't always side with the worker, either. They usually come down on both sides, and you'll often lose at the NLRB. But at least is seems like a fair fight.

President Trump's support among America's union workers has dropped 15 points in just a year, according to a Reuters–Ipsos poll released Friday.

The president enjoyed an all-time high of more than 60 percent support among union workers in the same poll last March, an unusually strong number for a Republican.

But his support among the demographic has dropped steadily nearly every month since then, Reuters reports, despite his pursuit of trade tariffs that labor unions have traditionally supported.

Trump's support among union workers now sits at 47 percent, down from its all-time high of 62 percent, according to the poll. April numbers have not yet been released.

A graph released by Reuters notes that Trump tended to win union supporters in areas of the country, such as the Southwest and the Carolinas, where union workers make up a smaller percentage of the overall workforce.

[snip][end]

_________________-- Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.Malaclypse the Younger

A new poll shows that the majority of American voters haven't noticed an increase in their paychecks because of the Republican tax cuts, which went into effect this January.

The Politico and Morning Consult poll reported that 55 percent of respondents had not noticed any jumps in their paychecks over the “the past several weeks.” About 22 percent had noticed an increase, and 23 percent weren't sure. In February, only 51 percent of those surveyed said their paychecks had not increased.

In reality, many Americans saw a bit more money in their checks in February because of the tax plan. For single people making between $46,000 and $162,000, their bi-weekly paychecks were estimated to increase by roughly $40 to $190.

“We estimate that 90 percent of wage earners will experience an increase in their take home pay,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in January. “These tax cuts will ensure that American workers are able to keep more of their hard earned income and decide how to spend, invest or save it.”............

The big news in this morning’s jobs report is that the unemployment rate edged down to 3.9 percent, the first time it has gone below 4.0 percent since 2000. Unfortunately, this dip was accompanied by a fall in labor force participation. In other words, it fell for the “wrong” reasons—not because of a surge in the number of people getting jobs, but because of a rise in the number of people out of the labor force. Both the labor force participation rate and the employment-to-population ratio ticked down 0.1 percentage points.

Turning to the payroll survey, the economy added 164,000 jobs last month. All told, average monthly job creation over the past year is 190,000. After a higher-than-expected February and a lower-than-expected March.........

GENEVA (Reuters) - Poverty in the United States is extensive and deepening under the Trump administration whose policies seem aimed at removing the safety net from millions of poor people, while rewarding the rich, a U.N. human rights investigator has found.

Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty, called on U.S. authorities to provide solid social protection and address underlying problems, rather than "punishing and imprisoning the poor".

While welfare benefits and access to health insurance are being slashed, President Donald Trump's tax reform has awarded "financial windfalls" to the mega-rich and large companies, further increasing inequality, he said in a report.

U.S. policies since President Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty in the 1960s have been "neglectful at best," he said.

"But the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship," Alston said.

Almost 41 million people or 12.7 percent live in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and children account for one in three poor, he said. The United States has the highest youth poverty rate among industrialized countries, he added.

"Its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, eradicable tropical diseases are increasingly prevalent and it has the world's highest incarceration rate ... and the highest obesity levels in the developed world," Alston said.

[snip]

It is based on his mission in December to several U.S. states, including rural Alabama, a slum in downtown Los Angeles, California, and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

Citing "shameful statistics" linked to entrenched racial discrimination, Alston said that African Americans are 2.5 times more likely than whites to live in poverty and their unemployment rate is more than double. Women, Hispanics, immigrants, and indigenous people also suffer high rates.

At least 550,000 people are homeless in America, he said.

"The tax reform will worsen this situation and ensure that the United States remains the most unequal society in the developed world," Alston said. "The planned dramatic cuts in welfare will essentially shred crucial dimensions of a safety net that is already full of holes."

The tax overhaul, which sailed through the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress in December, permanently cut the top corporate rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Tax cuts for individuals, however, are temporary and expire after 2025.

[snip][end]

_________________-- Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.Malaclypse the Younger

.........Many of these folks are the nation's child care workers, home health aides, office assistants and store clerks, who work low-paying jobs and have little savings, the study noted. Some 66% of jobs in the US pay less than $20 an hour.......

In a typical last-minute scramble, Jannette Navarro, a 22-year-old Starbucks barista and single mother, scraped together a plan for surviving the month of July without setting off family or financial disaster.

In contrast to the joyless work she had done at a Dollar Tree store and a KFC franchise, the $9-an-hour Starbucks job gave Ms. Navarro, the daughter of a drug addict and an absentee father, the hope of forward motion. She had been hired because she showed up so many times, cheerful and persistent, asking for work, and she had a way of flicking away setbacks — such as a missed bus on her three-hour commute — with the phrase, “I’m over it.”

Newly off public assistance, she was just a few credits shy of an associate degree in business and talked of getting a master’s degree as some of her co-workers were. Her take-home pay rarely topped $400 to $500 every two weeks; since starting in November, she had set aside $900 toward a car — her next step toward stability and independence for herself and her 4-year-old son, Gavin.

But Ms. Navarro’s fluctuating hours, combined with her limited resources, had also turned their lives into a chronic crisis over the clock. She rarely learned her schedule more than three days before the start of a workweek, plunging her into urgent logistical puzzles over who would watch the boy. Months after starting the job she moved out of her aunt’s home, in part because of mounting friction over the erratic schedule, which the aunt felt was also holding her family captive. Ms. Navarro’s degree was on indefinite pause because her shifting hours left her unable to commit to classes. She needed to work all she could, sometimes counting on dimes from the tip jar to make the bus fare home. If she dared ask for more stable hours, she feared, she would get fewer work hours over all.

“You’re waiting on your job to control your life,” she said, with the scheduling software used by her employer dictating everything from “how much sleep Gavin will get to what groceries I’ll be able to buy this month.”

.......“Every generation, whether it’s the abolition movement in the 1850s or it’s the women’s suffrage movement in the late 1800s, early 1900s, or it’s the Bonus Marches that helped produce the New Deal in the 1930s, every generation has to stand up. There has to be a moral dissent and a moral critique in every, every, every generation. If there is injustice, if there is oppression, every generation has to pick it up. The success begins when you stand up and challenge it.”.........

Corporations aren't spending their money on current facilities or worker pay. Only 10 Fortune 500 companies did anything for their workers with the savings, usually a one-time bonus, instead of raises that would last like the tax cut will last, year after year.

Instead, they are closing plants and moving them with the money, and doing stock buy-backs to increase profits.

Oh yeah. We have to be so much better. Granted, that is clearing the lowest of bars, but still.

Dunno, a lot of the punditocracy are saying the Democrats need to run on being more than just not-Trump.

The good news is, they're pulling that out of their ass, because I don't know any who are merely running on not being him: they're running on a REAL agenda for working people, not just bullshit, con jobs, and smoke and mirrors.

I kinda like the name "A Better Deal". Yes, echoes of FDR. Yes, a rejoinder to the guy who ran on being a dealmaker, said he would make better deals for the American people, but has mostly conned the living fuck out of them. And grifted for himself, his friends, and his family.

I'm glad you and I both like Leonard Pitts. Of course, I see him all the time in the Miami Herald.

She is a nice lady who wrote me a nice email in which she spoke about the need to try to understand Donald Trump’s supporters. As Rose put it, “We need to not close ourselves off to how the other side thinks.” It’s a sentiment I hear a lot from progressives, and it bespeaks a great generosity of spirit.

But I couldn’t disagree more.

Don’t get me wrong. Thinking people will always try to see past their own ideological blind spots, to put themselves into the shoes of those they disagree with. That’s an admirable trait. In normal times it’s a trait I would applaud with enthusiasm.

But these are not normal times. Indeed, sometimes, I wonder if we appreciate just how abnormal — how fraught with danger — they really are. Under Trump, American laws, news media and mores are under assault, to say nothing of American democracy itself.

And I’m sorry, but I don’t think “understanding” Trump followers will ameliorate — or even address — any of that. Besides which, is there really so much left to “understand?”

Not from where I sit. Long before Trump even existed as a political force, many of us noted with alarm the rise of a backlash among right wingers deeply angry and profoundly terrified by the writing on the demographic wall. Said writing foretold — and for that matter, still foretells — the declining preeminence of white, Christian America. As several studies now show, a sense of alarmed displacement among white, Christian America is the soil from which the weed of Trumpism grew.

The idea that we must “understand” those folks carries with it an implicit suggestion that in so doing, we might find some ground for compromise. It would be a great idea in normal times. But again, these times are not normal.

No compromise is possible here for a simple reason Trump followers seem to understand better than the rest of us: You can’t compromise with demography, can’t order numbers to stop being what they are and saying what they say about the coming tide of change. But what you can do is seize the levers of power and change the rules of the game in hopes of blunting the force of that tide. That — again, look at the studies — is what Trump supporters elected him to do.

So while, it is admirable to think “understanding” can fix this country, it is also naive. Progressives should ask themselves:When’s the last time you heard any Trump supporters talking about the need to understand you? You haven’t — and that ought to tell you something.

Here’s the thing: the rest of us have the moral high ground here. We see the same demographic writing on the wall that Trump followers see, but where it makes them angry and fearful, it leaves us energized. Many of us are excited to see the nation that will arise from this cauldron of change.

That’s because the idea of change doesn’t threaten us. It will challenge us, yes, but we’re ready for that. We know that this a big country, big enough for many different kinds of people, many different ways of life. We know what it means to live and let live. And we know that welcoming the stranger, caring for the stranger, is simply what you do as a human being.

I submit that those are core American virtues. And that now would be an excellent time for progressives to exhibit a little courage in their defense. Trump followers see a nation in demographic peril, so they seek a nation where those who frighten them can be regulated into irrelevance. There’s no big mystery about that. There never has been. So no, they don’t really need to be understood.

What they need to be, is defeated.

[snip][end]

Preach that from the mountaintop, brother. Amen.

I'm done with "understanding" the Trumpistas. Are they trying to understand me - as a Jew, as a liberal, living in a place where I think the Hispanics outnumber me the Gringo, as one of those college professors they seem to hate, as a struggling member of the working class? As somebody who so fucking wished I didn't have to see a burning swastika in 2018? I live there, too. No, they just want me to drink my tears and shut up MFing snowflake.

I'm on to kicking their muthafucking ass in November.

I'm so fucking done with UNDERSTANDING them. They've been clear what they think of me, the shit flung at me stinks. Payback is a mother, bitches.

_________________-- Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.Malaclypse the Younger

Oh yeah. We have to be so much better. Granted, that is clearing the lowest of bars, but still.

Dunno, a lot of the punditocracy are saying the Democrats need to run on being more than just not-Trump.

The good news is, they're pulling that out of their ass, because I don't know any who are merely running on not being him: they're running on a REAL agenda for working people, not just bullshit, con jobs, and smoke and mirrors.

I kinda like the name "A Better Deal". Yes, echoes of FDR. Yes, a rejoinder to the guy who ran on being a dealmaker, said he would make better deals for the American people, but has mostly conned the living fuck out of them. And grifted for himself, his friends, and his family.

I'm glad you and I both like Leonard Pitts. Of course, I see him all the time in the Miami Herald.

She is a nice lady who wrote me a nice email in which she spoke about the need to try to understand Donald Trump’s supporters. As Rose put it, “We need to not close ourselves off to how the other side thinks.” It’s a sentiment I hear a lot from progressives, and it bespeaks a great generosity of spirit.

But I couldn’t disagree more.

Don’t get me wrong. Thinking people will always try to see past their own ideological blind spots, to put themselves into the shoes of those they disagree with. That’s an admirable trait. In normal times it’s a trait I would applaud with enthusiasm.

But these are not normal times. Indeed, sometimes, I wonder if we appreciate just how abnormal — how fraught with danger — they really are. Under Trump, American laws, news media and mores are under assault, to say nothing of American democracy itself.

And I’m sorry, but I don’t think “understanding” Trump followers will ameliorate — or even address — any of that. Besides which, is there really so much left to “understand?”

Not from where I sit. Long before Trump even existed as a political force, many of us noted with alarm the rise of a backlash among right wingers deeply angry and profoundly terrified by the writing on the demographic wall. Said writing foretold — and for that matter, still foretells — the declining preeminence of white, Christian America. As several studies now show, a sense of alarmed displacement among white, Christian America is the soil from which the weed of Trumpism grew.

The idea that we must “understand” those folks carries with it an implicit suggestion that in so doing, we might find some ground for compromise. It would be a great idea in normal times. But again, these times are not normal.

No compromise is possible here for a simple reason Trump followers seem to understand better than the rest of us: You can’t compromise with demography, can’t order numbers to stop being what they are and saying what they say about the coming tide of change. But what you can do is seize the levers of power and change the rules of the game in hopes of blunting the force of that tide. That — again, look at the studies — is what Trump supporters elected him to do.

So while, it is admirable to think “understanding” can fix this country, it is also naive. Progressives should ask themselves:When’s the last time you heard any Trump supporters talking about the need to understand you? You haven’t — and that ought to tell you something.

Here’s the thing: the rest of us have the moral high ground here. We see the same demographic writing on the wall that Trump followers see, but where it makes them angry and fearful, it leaves us energized. Many of us are excited to see the nation that will arise from this cauldron of change.

That’s because the idea of change doesn’t threaten us. It will challenge us, yes, but we’re ready for that. We know that this a big country, big enough for many different kinds of people, many different ways of life. We know what it means to live and let live. And we know that welcoming the stranger, caring for the stranger, is simply what you do as a human being.

I submit that those are core American virtues. And that now would be an excellent time for progressives to exhibit a little courage in their defense. Trump followers see a nation in demographic peril, so they seek a nation where those who frighten them can be regulated into irrelevance. There’s no big mystery about that. There never has been. So no, they don’t really need to be understood.

What they need to be, is defeated.

[snip][end]

Preach that from the mountaintop, brother. Amen.

I'm done with "understanding" the Trumpistas. Are they trying to understand me - as a Jew, as a liberal, living in a place where I think the Hispanics outnumber me the Gringo, as one of those college professors they seem to hate, as a struggling member of the working class? As somebody who so fucking wished I didn't have to see a burning swastika in 2018? I live there, too. No, they just want me to drink my tears and shut up MFing snowflake.

I'm on to kicking their muthafucking ass in November.

I'm so fucking done with UNDERSTANDING them. They've been clear what they think of me, the shit flung at me stinks. Payback is a mother, bitches.

and that helps the poor and oppressed how? having and making a choice isnt whats wrong with our democracy, whats wrong is the people left out and oppressed from that. I can certainly understand people not wanting someone friendly to racial supremacists to have power over them, I can also however understand people not wanting someone friendly to austerity that can leave them homeless and vulnerable to the elements, neither is wrong but neither is right either because neither are acceptable at least not to human being supporters.

Did you read the UN rapporteur's report? There's a reason I posted it.

Yes, it notes the American problem of poverty is perennial. It also notes that the situation is growing far worse under Trump.

Truth is, in November, this November, we can really do two key things by putting more Democrats in Congress:

1) start showing what the party can do with a president who won't veto their bills2) you need majorities in both chambers for impeachment ... I'm only slightly psychic, but I have this spider sense feeling the Mueller Report, whenever it's released, will contain impeachable offenses.

Dunno, I agree we need to do lots of stuff after, but step one is getting rid of his policies. Also, BTW, the fundamental autocratic threat he represents to our democratic systems.

Remember, homey, I'm totally on board with Rev. William Barber's goals. OK, we might quibble over his strategies. I get why as a social movement leader he has to act as if both parties equally need being lectured to. I seem to recall it was only one party who invited him in 2016 to their party's convention, to roaring applause.

Quote:

having and making a choice isnt whats wrong with our democracy, whats wrong is the people left out and oppressed from that.

Yes, and I am totally onboard with efforts to fight voter caging, voter suppression, the weakening of the Voting Rights Act, and Gov. Skeletor's efforts to make voting in Florida harder for everybody and poor people, students, and minorities in particular by lessening early voting opportunities. And these crappy voter ID laws.

I'm not going to bring up the Russians hacking & fucking with our voting system. I know that's not on your radar. It's fine, it's on mine.

You know, there's no real point to bragging about what we do offline, nobody can verify it, but I will just say personally resisting voter disenfranchisement, particularly minority voters, is something I've been active on for a long time. I also know many Democrats who are as passionate about it as I am.

Quote:

I can certainly understand people not wanting someone friendly to racial supremacists to have power over them, I can also however understand people not wanting someone friendly to austerity that can leave them homeless and vulnerable to the elements, neither is wrong but neither is right either because neither are acceptable at least not to human being supporters.

The either/or of how you posit things is what I find odd.

The person who was friendlier to racial supremacists (Trump) was also friendlier to austerity.

I'm not saying Clinton would have been best buds with everything on the progressive agenda, but she sure as fuck would not have cut spending to various government programs to the degree Trump has, including health care.

Yes, I know Trump mumbled at one point he wanted our health care system to take care of everybody. Meanwhile, he's slashed ACA, tried to eliminate it, and thrown more people off health insurance. Fact. He said he wouldn't touch Social Security or Medicaid or Medicare. He fucking lied, Paul Ryan and him started working on doing it, your and my bud Michael Moore has noticed.

So the choice was between the more racist, more pro-austerity guy and the more inclusive, less-austerity gal. It wasn't like this was an either/or for me. I'm not saying Clinton was gold from heaven, but in life, it's often about taking the better over the worse, not the perfect.

_________________-- Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.Malaclypse the Younger

President Trump's support among America's union workers has dropped 15 points in just a year, according to a Reuters–Ipsos poll released Friday.

...from a post posted in May, and that's what's wrong with this picture. Why didn't it fall by October 2016? Working guys wanted him, now working guys have him, so they should just suck it up and live with the consequences of their own bad choices because the rest of us have to.

_________________I shall continue to be an impossible person so long as those who are now possible remain possible.

President Donald Trump was in Granite City, Illinois Thursday afternoon to speak before the men and women who are going back to work at the USS Steel plant in this blue collar town. He touted his policies that he says helped deliver those jobs at the steel mill.

The president visited Granite City in the aftermath of U.S. Steel Granite City Works restarting one of its idle furnaces after two years of idle operations. President Trump is expected to tour the steel mill during his visit...............

.........It’s a weird tic of Trump’s that he keeps highlighting economic numbers that don’t really show the strength he insists is happening. Americans agree that the economy is doing well, as polling repeatedly shows. But Trump instead embraces numbers that either sound big or that he harped on during the campaign, or both. They don’t always hold up.........

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of federal employees, including some workers from the Department of Veterans Affairs, rallied Wednesday at about the same time a court case began to fight anti-union executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in May.

The executive orders, which went into effect this month, limit union employees’ ability to use official time, shorten collective bargaining negotiations and encourage agencies to fire employees, instead of merely disciplining them. The American Federation of Government Employees and other federal unions argue the orders are unconstitutional.

“What they’re trying to do is just going to devastate us,” said Don Hale, a Marine Corps veteran, Defense Department employee and chairman of AFGE’s Defense Conference. “We won’t stop fighting until these executive orders are gone.”

A case challenging Trump’s authority to restrict union representation started Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

[snip]

Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as well as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other lawmakers took the stage at the park to condemn the executive orders.

AFGE President J. David Cox called Trump’s administration a group of “union-busting thugs” who were “trying to destroy veterans’ health care and the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

Trump used changes at the VA last June as a blueprint for two of the executive orders that he signed in May. The VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 created more repercussions and a quicker firing process for poor-performing VA employees. Advocates saw the new law as a way to root out a perceived culture of corruption at the VA, though some lawmakers are now concerned it’s being used to target low-level employees and retaliate against whistleblowers.

The VA announced Friday that it had started implementing one of Trump’s executive orders that goes further than the new law. It cuts down on official time — time used by union leaders to file grievances and talk about the work place. The order affects about 1,700 VA employees, the agency said.

[snip][end]

_________________-- Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.Malaclypse the Younger

Federal employees are at war with a presidential administration that’s bent on busting their unions. They rallied around the country July 25, their day in court as federal unions sue to halt three anti-union executive orders.

President Donald Trump’s push is the most antagonistic he’s ever seen under any president, said David Cann, director of bargaining for the Government Employees (AFGE). With 700,000 members scattered across 70 federal agencies, AFGE is the largest union of federal workers.

“It’s aimed at choking the union out of existence,” Cann said. “The overarching desire is to kill the union.”

AFGE, the Treasury Employees (NTEU), and other federal unions have filed suit in federal district court against the three executive orders that Trump signed on May 25, a Friday afternoon that will live in infamy.

THREE BLOWS

One order would severely reduce due process requirements when the government wants to discipline or fire a federal worker. When employees are accused of performance problems, Trump would like to let them go after 30 days, rather than giving them the 150 days for improvement provided in some federal contracts. The president is also trying to eliminate employees’ ability to file grievances over terminations, performance appraisals, or awards.

A second executive order would drastically cut the amount of paid time that union reps are allowed to represent federal employees and to deal with federal agencies on matters that are often of mutual interest. The order would even prevent union reps from filing grievances or representing employees in grievance hearings on official time. Unions would also be prevented from using agency space and facilities. In effect it would evict union reps from offices they’ve negotiated for, and used, for decades—and from equipment such as file cabinets, phones, and computers.

The third executive order would reduce collective bargaining to a shadow of what it is under current law and practice, and would set extreme limits on timeframes and bargaining practices, placing government agencies in the driver’s seat.

The Department of Education already took this kind of unilateral approach in February—when management there did not like the pace at which bargaining was progressing, it simply implemented a contract of its own construction, shredding agreements from previous contracts on raises, overtime, scheduling, child care, and performance evaluations. On July 24, a federal labor mediator told the DOE this amounted to "bad-faith bargaining," providing a ray of hope for the union.

[snip][end]

Two-faced Don the Con says he loves the working stiff, but if you're a federal worker represented by a union, he's got the shiv. BTW, have I pointed out that high numbers of African-Americans often work in these kinds of positions? Well, anyway, he's been union busting his whole life ... this is nothing new.

_________________-- Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.Malaclypse the Younger

The head of the country’s largest federation of labor unions offered qualified praise Wednesday for President Donald Trump’s trade policies but questioned the administration’s approach to levying tariffs.

“I think he’s going in the right direction on trade,” said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.

International trade is a vital part of the U.S. economy, but powerful corporate interests and secret negotiations have led to trade rules that “stacked the deck” for large corporations at the expense of working people, Trumka told reporters at a breakfast roundtable sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.

“It’s time to rewrite those laws,” Trumka said, adding that Trump “understands that’s what needs to be done.”

Tariffs are a legitimate tool against enforcing trade agreements, but should be used selectively “like rifles” against countries that are breaking the rules, not against Canada, Trumka said.

“I don't think that Canada has violated the rules,” he said...............

But the economy has changed so much since the heyday of US “smokestack” industries that raising tariff barriers today won’t bring back most of the manufacturing jobs that disappeared in recent decades. To start with, trade agreements are only one of the factors driving globalization; sharp reductions in the cost of transport (containerized cargo) and communications (information technology), as well as other nations’ economic development (China, etc.) are also important causes, and are unlikely to be rolled back.

Besides, manufacturing operations like steel production simply don’t need as much labor as they did in the past. Thirty years ago, the US had about 200,000 steel workers who produced approximately 80 million metric tons of steel per year. In the last few years, roughly the same annual volume of steel has been produced by about 85,000 US workers, meaning productivity is more than twice what it was then. Most of the long-run job losses in steel have been caused, not by imports, but by the improved technology (automation) and industry restructuring (mini-mills that rely on recycled scrap instead of iron ore) that led to this doubling of productivity. As a result, restricting imports can bring back only a small fraction of the jobs lost in earlier eras.

If the US were to banish all steel imports tomorrow, domestic production would have to rise by about one-third to meet current demand. Even if steel employment increased proportionately (which is far from certain), the result would be only about 28,000 new jobs created. That would be a drop in the bucket compared to past job losses in the industry — more than 100,000 since the late 1980s, and about 500,000 since the mid-1960s. Quite simply, raising tariffs for steel will not turn back the clock to a time when steel mills generated far more employment.

[snip]

Trump offers the false hope that trade barriers for particular industries, combined with tax cuts, deregulation, and increased fossil-fuel production, will rejuvenate US industry and recreate the kind of abundant, high-paying manufacturing jobs that existed in the past. This is simply a trap and an illusion, not to mention destructive for the planet. We do need to rewrite trade agreements so they don’t favor corporate rights over labor rights and so they don’t hand more monopoly power to companies that own patents and copyrights. We do need to adopt monetary policies that would keep the dollar from being so overvalued that it exacerbates the trade deficit.

Progressives don’t have to love “free trade” or abandon their criticism of neoliberal globalization. But they shouldn’t think Trump’s tariffs are the right response.

[snip][end]

This is why I love Jacobin - unabashedly progressive, but not afraid to take on sacred cows (also love their piece on Tulsi Gabbard).

_________________-- Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.Malaclypse the Younger

Don't look now, but you could soon owe money to the U.S. Department of Treasury in April because you're taking too much cash home now.

Seriously. We've been warned before and we're being warned once again. So if you've been dragging your feet about maybe having more money withheld from your paycheck, now is the time to do something.

The Internal Revenue Service has a withholding calculator at http://www.irs.gov to do a quick "paycheck check up."

It's August. Any move you make now to have more taxes withheld from your paycheck can still help you pull fewer dollars out of your savings or checking account for an unexpected tax bill due in April.

The Government Accountability Office outlined some of the challenges in a July report involving the new payroll withholding tables. The tax rules changed dramatically after the tax reform package that rolled out of Washington last December.

Now, there's some question on how well revised withholding tables for 2018 being used by employers now reflect what you're going to owe in taxes in 2019.

The GAO report noted that the IRS has warned taxpayers earlier this year to take a look at the .........

'Corporate greed at its worst': Ohio officials slam GM's move out of an area Trump pledged to reviveGeneral Motors' move to slash production at five facilities could have political implications in swing state Ohio.President Donald Trump pledged to revive manufacturing in Lordstown, Ohio, one of the areas where GM plans to lay off workers.Democratic and Republican officials in Ohio, including Gov. John Kasich and Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, are criticizing GM's decision.https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/26/sherrod ... uring.html

One of the plants where General Motors plans to slash production and lay off workers next year sits in an area that President Donald Trump promised to revive, within a swing state that will help to decide his bid for a second term in the White House.

The Detroit-based automaker announced restructuring plans Monday that could result in the closure of five North American plants in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland and Canada. GM plans to lay off about 14,000 factory and white-collar workers. The company said it will cut about 15 percent of its salaried staff.

[snip]

Still, the move is a gut punch to one area in Ohio that Trump pledged to boost last year. GM plans to cut as many as 1,600 factory jobs at a Lordstown, Ohio, plant when it winds down production there in March. Last year, Trump — speaking about 20 miles away in Youngstown — said he saw too many empty factories in the area and promised to revive manufacturing there.

[snip]

Democratic officials in the state saw a betrayal Monday from both GM and the president, who won Ohio in part on his pledges to renegotiate trade deals and push American companies to make products domestically. The president's opponents will likely seize on the job losses ahead of a pivotal 2020 election, when Trump may need Ohio's 18 electoral votes to win re-election.

[snip]

"I think you're going to see something else happen there. ... They better put something else in," Trump said, contending that the layoffs have nothing to do with the tariffs he imposed on steel and aluminum imports.

[snip]

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat whose district includes Lordstown, excoriated GM and Trump on Monday. In a statement, he called the move a "bad combination of greedy corporations and policy makers with no understanding of economic development." He asked Trump to "keep his word" from when he came to Ohio's Mahoning Valley last year promising jobs would return.

"He promised us that his massive corporate tax cut would lead to dramatic reinvestments in our communities. That clearly is not happening," Ryan added. "The Valley has been yearning for the Trump Administration to come here, roll up their sleeves and help us fight for this recovery. What we've gotten instead are broken promises and petty tweets."

[snip]

Lordstown sits in Trumbull County, which Trump carried by about 6,000 votes as he won Ohio in 2016. Ohio has supported the presidential election winner in every contest since 1964.

[snip]

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said she was "deeply disappointed" by the move, adding that it would have a "devastating impact" on workers and their families. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said he was "extremely disappointed" and urged Congress and the Trump administration to "focus on policies that encourage automakers to invest" in the United States.

[snip][end]

Yeah. Sen. Peters, I would love to see those policies from this administration, too. Except, really, all I've seen is a lot of jaw-jaw, and bullshit-bullshit.

_________________-- Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.Malaclypse the Younger

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